It is very good to recite the mantra
Om mani padme hum, but while you are doing it, you should be thinking
on its meaning, for the meaning of the six syllables is great and
vast. The first, Om is composed of three letters, A, U, and M. These
symbolize the practitioner's impure body, speech, and mind; they also
symbolize the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha.

Can impure body, speech, and mind be transformed
into pure body, speech, and mind, or are they entirely separate?
All Buddhas are cases of beings who were like ourselves and then
in dependence on the path became enlightened; Buddhism does not
assert that there is anyone who from the beginning is free from
faults and possesses all good qualities. The development of pure
body, speech, and mind comes from gradually leaving the impure states
arid their being transformed into the pure.

How is this done? The path is indicated by the
next four syllables. Mani, meaning jewel, symbolizes the factors
of method-the altruistic intention to become enlightened, compassion,
and love. Just as a jewel is capable of removing poverty, so the
altruistic mind of enlightenment is capable of removing the poverty,
or difficulties, of cyclic existence and of solitary peace. Similarly,
just as a jewel fulfills the wishes of sentient beings, so the altruistic
intention to become enlightened fulfills the wishes of sentient
beings.

The two syllables, padme, meaning lotus, symbolize
wisdom. Just as a lotus grows forth from mud but is not sullied
by the faults of mud, so wisdom is capable of putting you in a situation
of non-contradiction whereas there would be contradiction if you
did not have wisdom. There is wisdom realizing impermanence, wisdom
realizing that persons are empty, of being self-sufficient or substantially
existent, wisdom that realizes the emptiness of duality-that is
to say, of difference of entity between subject an object-and wisdom
that realizes the emptiness of inherent existence. Though there
are many different types of wisdom, the main of all these is the
wisdom realizing emptiness.

Purity must be achieved by an indivisible unity
of method and wisdom, symbolized by the final syllable hum, which
indicates indivisibility. According to the sutra system, this indivisibility
of method and wisdom refers to wisdom affected by method and method
affected by wisdom. In the mantra, or tantric, vehicle, it refers
to one consciousness in which there is the full form of both wisdom
and method as one undifferentiable entity. In terms of the seed
syllables of the five Conqueror Buddhas, hum is the seed syllable
of Akshobhya - the immovable, the unfluctuating, that which cannot
be disturbed by anything.

Thus the six syllables, om mani padme hum, mean
that in dependence on the practice of a path which is an indivisible
union of method and wisdom, you can transform your impure body,
speech, and mind into the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of
a Buddha. It is said that you should not seek for Buddhahood outside
of yourself; the substances for the achievement of Buddhahood are
within. As Maitreya says in his Sublime Continuum of the Great Vehicle
(Uttaratantra), all beings naturally have the Buddha nature in their
own continuum. We have within us the seed of purity, the essence
of a One Gone Thus (Tathagatagarbha), that is to be transformed
and fully developed into Buddhahood.

(From a lecture given by His Holiness The Dalai Lama of Tibet
at the Kalmuck Mongolian Buddhist Center, New Jersey.)